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Most of us have grown up with the ingrained perception that men hit their sexual peak at 18, and women at 35. Which, ever since I got the sudden urge to smell a cute guy's neck on the subway when I was seventeen, I have sensed was a whole lot of BS.

Straight-up, the idea that girls under 30 have little sex drive and don't need to be satisfied totally lets twenty-something guys off the hook. ("Did you come?" "Nope." "Oh. Well, a lot of girls don't." *rolls over, goes to sleep.* And you're like this.)

Accordingly, Occidental sociology professor Lisa Wade makes a convincing counter-argument in a piece at Salon that details the numerous additional circumstances that factor into this pop culture myth.

First of all, sex drive does not good sex make. Just because a boy can get harder at 18 than he can when he's middle-aged doesn't mean the sex is better — if the kid's unskilled at the myriad other elements that are involved with getting a woman (of any age) off, and he's done after a few thrusts, it's no wonder that women aren't coming until their dating pool is full of more experienced men. It's just easier for young men to picture women morphing from frigid prudes into voracious MILFs when they hit their 30s than accept that they're not necessarily satisfying the women in their age group.

Men are also affected by this "18 versus 35" mentality, often losing confidence in their sexual abilities as they get older... ironically, right when they've probably learned enough to get a woman off.

Until we reach a certain age, women are taught (way more than dudes) that sex can lead to dangerous consequences. While they're learning from porn and "boys will be boys" jokes from permissive adults, our sex ed focuses on scare-mongering.

b>We've all done the thing where we float above ourselves while we're hooking up with a guy and have a moment of panic: "Oh, God, I look like Jabba the Hutt." This self-objectification obviously affects our ability to be naturally comfortable, hence more likely to have an orgasm. Wade refers to a quote from Paris Hilton, of all people. "My boyfriends always say I'm sexy. Not sexual."

(Here I would add that, while it's depressing, once you get older there's a lot less pressure to be "sexy" in an objectified way, and therefore you can be the honey badger/not care and let your freak flag fly.)

You're way less likely to ask a dude to go down on you for the 40 minutes necessary for you to come if he's a random guy. In the cases of casual one-time hookups between college students, oftentimes they're both working towards the (visible) goal of making the guy come, not you. The female orgasm is treated as a bonus.

Now go forth and send this to every man you know. It's time we got ours.